


Night, Claws Stretch Thin

by Garchomp445



Category: Original Work
Genre: Depression, Gay solidarity, Gen, Panic attack? kinda?, Transgender character but it never comes up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-26
Updated: 2017-07-26
Packaged: 2018-12-07 07:11:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11618574
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Garchomp445/pseuds/Garchomp445
Summary: A powerful warrior sneaks around a secure military facility to bother its personnel, but ends up having a nice chat instead.





	Night, Claws Stretch Thin

She hops onto the barbed wire fence, and masks the sound by gripping the strands in her rocky talons. None of the guards below will think to look up during their shifts, and her eyes drift elsewhere as she strolls around the compound. She puts in her earbuds, and flips through songs blindly with the hand stuffed in her pyjamas. Eventually she lands on one that fits her current mood, an intense, but soft, violin piece. She grins at the oblivious guards below, and shifts her craggy plumage to match the green colour of the night sky, in the off chance that they glance up.

Several minutes later, she’s nearly to a guard tower that’s switching shifts. She picks up the pace, intending to leave a present for the next guard, but a violin sounds slightly off tune. Her eyes throb, and she drops to the top of the barbed wire, gripping it with both hands and talons. Each thrum of music is the same as before, but she can’t stand it right now, and tears out her earbuds. This was an awful idea. She never should’ve done this. The dirt far below is looking much more tempting than the sharpened barbed wire, but she can’t control her vice grip on the strands of metal. She could just fall down, and get caught in moments. Long moments. Her eyes drift out of focus as she imagines herself being caught and stomped to death. She deserves it.

She breathes hard, and nearly tears up as she gets back up to her metal tightrope. The moment passed, and she just feels normal amounts of not great rather than excessively so. At least she can finish what little, dumb nonsense she started.

It doesn’t take long to reach the guard tower, and the guard inside is appropriately dozy. She glides from the fence to the tower’s large windows, and quietly forces it open with one razor-sharp talon. The sound of her clanking onto the metal floor is enough to surprise the guard awake.

“KEVIN!”

She responds reflexively in spanish, but when he gives her a blank look, she switches to english,

“You guards need to stay on your toes.”

He jumps to attention, mutters a half-dozen apologies, says a few words that she doesn’t parse, then says,

“Please don’t report this to my superiors!”

She stretches a bit, glancing around the sparse watchtower, “Of course I won’t. I mess with the guards here most nights.” He seems to have a sudden realization, and fiddles with a notebook in his jacket pocket, “Is Kevin one of your fellow guards?”

“No, he’s my partne…” The guard bites his lip, “He’s a good friend, and I hang out with him a lot.”

He’s still fiddling with his notebook, so she relaxes entirely, and states, “I’m gay as well, if that’s what you were trying to avoid saying.”

He visibly relaxes, and settles back down in his chair, “I’m glad that there’s a few more of us!” She finds herself smiling.

“How long have you and Kevin been together?”

She goes back to the window, “Oh, just eight years now.” It’s nearly time for her to leave, “Did you have anyone before you transformed?”

He’s relaxed a bit too much, certainly not paying any more attention than before she came to visit, “No. An ex or two.” She sticks her leg out the window, “I was actually hoping to find someone in the institute, as crazy as that sounds.”

He laughs, “Not much chance with just fifty people!” She finishes slowly exiting the window, “Hey, I’m glad we met.”

“Yeah. Same here.”

She exits, and hops back onto the barbed-wire fence. Just a few dozen minutes remain until morning roll call at this unreasonable hour, but she supposes that there are a few things worth fighting for, even in this terrible compound.

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this during a really weird depressive spell, just to project some of my emotions on my OCs. I would write more about them, but as you might have guessed, I can't speak spanish, or any language fluently besides english. Oh well. Feel free to leave comments or questions!


End file.
